... While Hollywood undid Hilton's personal life, his career thrived there. He won the Best Screenplay Oscar for Mrs. Miniver (1942); actress Greer Garson also earned a Best Actress Oscar in the title role. Directed by William Wyler, the film depicts a middle-class English family's life during first months of World War II. Hilton also wrote screenplays for Camille (1936), Foreign Correspondent (1940), Forever and a Day (1943), The Story of Dr. Wassell (1943), The Tuttles of Tahiti (1942) and We Are Not Alone (1939)...

1939... Robert Donat wins the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1940 (his sole Oscar win), becoming one of the few non-Gone With the Wind victors that year. He defeats some of the most famous nominated performances in film history -- Clark Gable's performance as Rhett Butler, James Stewart as Jefferson Smith in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and Laurence Olivier as Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights...

...Finding the right actor to play Chips was crucial to the project's success. Counihan wanted to cast someone endearing, as the audience must want to go on a lifelong journey with Chips. "Martin [Clunes] brings more than that to the part," she says. "He has a freshness about him, and it gives something completely different to the role."

...We made prosthetics to give him a double chin, which was an extension of his own when he pulled his face in. And he's got a false nose, because as you age your nose changes shape -- it gets bigger and gristlier. And the eyes droop. We've probably drooped them more than Martin's will in real life, but it's all artistic license, and we need to take it that much further. In reality Martin probably won't age anything like this, but it's what we felt Chips would look like...